About

The Learning from Lessons project investigates mathematics teacher learning during lesson planning, teaching, and reflection. The major premise of this project is that teachers learn from the act of teaching a lesson. Rather than asking “What must a teacher already know in order to practice effectively?”, this project asks “What might a teacher learn through their activities in the classroom and how might this learning be optimised?”

Left image: Teacher annotation of lesson activities; Middle image: Recording of teacher delivery of adapted lesson plan; Right image: A display of the lesson recording as a post-lesson interview stimulus

A key element in the research design of the project is the provision of lesson plans for purposefully-designed experimental mathematics lessons. Participating teachers are asked to first adapt a pre-designed lesson plan and deliver the lesson to their usual class (Lesson 1). The teachers are then asked to design a follow-up lesson themselves and deliver the lesson to the same class a few days after the first lesson (Lesson 2). A pilot study was conducted in 2014 and 2015 which informed the research design of this project (Spencer Foundation Project Number 201500036). The current project builds on and extends the pilot study to involve multiple case studies and an online survey in Australia, China, and Germany and is supported under Australian Research Council’s Discovery Projects funding scheme (Project number DP170102540).

Get involved!

We are currently recruiting Years 5, 6, and 7 mathematics teachers in Australia to take part in the project. Click here for more information.